


the sky doesn't ever end

by orange_yarn



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Limbs, Rogue One Spoilers, Suspension Of Disbelief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 04:50:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8876668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orange_yarn/pseuds/orange_yarn
Summary: rocks fall EVERYONE LIVES!





	

**Author's Note:**

> Ha, so. Just saw this movie tonight, started screaming in the movie theater and also in the parking lot, and also in my car, and then I came home and wrote this.
> 
> First, this is probably the most illogical and improbable thing of all time and also: I don't care. I only saw the movie once a couple of hours ago and now it's 4AM and my sister has already pointed out inaccuracies and yet: still I do not care. I do what I want. 
> 
> Second, uhm, warning for some violence/description of injury. Alive I can finangle, but unscathed? Not so much. Third, maybe someone has already written this? I wanted to get this done before I looked for fic. Whatever, either somebody has or somebody will write this much better than I ever could, I just need to do this.
> 
> Title is from "Willful Suspension of Disbelief," by Modest Mouse, because REASONS. Unbetaed, maybe I will come back and edit again tomorrow, but also maybe I won't. I'll shut up now.

-+-

 

In the end, it’s just the two of them, kneeling on the shore, tangled up in each other's arms, half collapsed, half an embrace, as the base disintegrates, the blast speeding towards them across the water, except--

\--except it isn’t the end, after all. There’s a rush of heat and light and sound that sends them both sideways into the sand, but by the time it reaches the shore the worst of the explosion dies, and they don’t.

The whole planet goes silent, after that. Across the water, Jyn watches the remains of the base as they quietly crumble. The only sound is her own rapid breathing, and Cassian’s, harsh and ragged. She’s still reeling, her ears are ringing and every inch of her body hurts, and nearly everyone she knows must be dead, but she’s not. At least, not yet.

“Get up,” she hears herself say, to herself or to Cassian, she’s not really sure, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing happens, neither of them move, so she says it again, “Get up, we have to get up.” This time, she manages to stumble to her feet. She sways, her energy spent, but there’s something possessing her, propelling her forward, and she gives in to it. The Force, maybe, or something much simpler, like the primal will to live. 

Cassian’s still down, lying on his side in the sand, curled in on himself as gentle waves come ever closer. As badly as she’s hurt, Jyn knows he’s hurt worse, but they’ve come too far to give up now. “Cassian, get up,” she urges him. His eyes are open, but he isn’t looking at her, and he still isn’t moving. She’d crouch down beside him but she doesn’t think she’d be able to stand up again, so instead she says, “Cassian,  _ please _ , we have to go.”

Finally, he turns his head to look up at her, his eyes asking the same question rattling around in her skull.  _ Where?  _ Any ships would have been obliterated along with the base. The Alliance would all be long gone by now, and the Imperials, too, if they’re lucky. She thinks they’re better off dying out here than falling into enemy hands. 

There’s nowhere to go, but they can still try. They have to try.

“Please,” she says again, reaching down towards Cassian, her open palm an invitation, a plea. He nods once, then takes her hand. It’s a struggle, but they work together to get him standing, to get his arm draped across her shoulder. She’s much smaller, which is a problem on its own, and on top of that they’re both injured, but still. She takes most of his weight, and then they take one step, and then they take another.

  
  


-+-

  
  


They make it twenty paces before he falls, and Jyn goes down with him.

This time, she knows he’s not getting up. His eyes have rolled back in his head, his face has gone slack. His breathing is shallow and his skin looks grey. He was shot, she saw it, and then he fell, and he  _ fell _ . He must be hurt, somewhere inside, a wound she can't see and can’t hope to mend, not out here, not without supplies and on her own.

Jyn’s aching and worse for wear, but it’s nothing life threatening. She could go, she’d be quicker, moving on her own, maybe she could bring back help. Except, she already knows there’s no help to be found, and anyway. She left Cassian once before -- she had to, she thought he was dead, the entire rebellion hinged on her sending those plans. She had no choice but to leave him behind, she  _ had  _ to. 

She won’t do it again. 

The frenetic energy that filled her just moments ago evaporates, leaving her bone-weary and strangely empty. She settles down beside Cassian, taking one of his hands in both of her own, and she waits. She’s not sure what she’s waiting for, but she knows it’ll come, sooner or later. 

She closes her eyes and just listens, to the wind rustling past her, to Cassian’s rasping breaths, to the roaring engines of a cargo ship as it speeds across the water.

Jyn jumps to her feet. 

  
  


-+-

  
  


“How?” Jyn breathes. She’s in the co-pilot’s seat but she keeps her hands back from the console, eyes fixed on the young man sitting in the pilot’s seat beside her. Defector, ally, friend.

Bodhi says it went something like this.

One minute, there was an explosion, a flash and a bang and a burst of searing pain, and the next, Baze was strapping him into the pilot’s seat and telling him he was very sorry, but he needed to fly them out of there,  _ now.  _

“We weren’t trying to find you,” Bodhi says, all in a rush. He’s pale and hysterical as he jumps them into hyperspace, hands shaking as he white-knuckles the controls. “I’m sorry, that sounds -- we thought you were dead. I thought we all were dead.” He whispers that last bit, a confession. Then he hesitates, and he asks, “ _ Are _ we dead?”

“Not yet,” Jyn promises, but she’s got a sinking feeling her friends’ time is running out. Cassian hasn’t woken, and Chirrut’s in even worse shape than the captain. There’s tourniquets binding what’s left of Bodhi’s legs. Baze must have tied them. 

Bodhi catches her looking, and he says, “It’s alright, it even doesn’t hurt.” Jyn thinks he means it. She thinks that’s a bad sign, but she doesn’t say that.

“I’m going to stay here,” she tells him instead, keeping her voice calm and even, “and you’re going to keep talking until we’re back at base. Do you understand?” 

Bodhi nods and breaks out in nervous laughter. Jyn squeezes his shoulder and hope he doesn’t bleed out here in the cockpit before they make it back.

She can’t think about that, though, just like she can’t wonder if Chirrut’s still breathing back in the hold or if Baze is only cradling his body. She can’t think about K-2, and how his ashes would be indistinguishable from the vaporized rubble. She can’t think about Cassian saying,  _ your father would have been proud of you,  _ and how he must have thought those would be his last words when he said them. 

She can’t think about any of it. All she can do is hope.

  
  


-+-

  
  


It takes three different medical droids assuring her that her friends will make a full recovery before Jyn finally starts to believe them. It was close -- very close, almost  _ too  _ close -- but they’ll all pull through. There aren’t words to describe her relief, the way her heart and jaw and fists finally unclench. 

She’s the first one released from the infirmary. Baze doesn't count, since he refused to be admitted in the first place, unwilling to leave Chirrut’s side, even for a second. She does get one of the droids to scan him once he finally falls asleep in a chair by Chirrut’s bacta tank. There’s not any major damage, and Jyn suspects he’ll heal by sheer willpower alone. 

The droids try to kick Jyn and Baze out exactly once. Baze may be bigger, but Jyn is just as scary, and just as stubborn. After that first attempt they leave them alone, and Jyn spends her time sitting by bacta tanks, and then at bedsides. The third night, she finds Chirrut resting but awake, and Baze asleep, though his arms are crossed and he’s sitting up straight in a chair beside the bed.

“How are the others?” Chirrut asks quietly. His staff rests across his lap, but his hands are relaxed. Jyn takes a seat at the end of his bed, careful not to wake Baze. 

“They’re fitting Bodhi for prosthetics soon. He’s taking it better than I expected,” she admits. “Cassian’s still sleeping.”  There’s a tiny, irrational fear seeded deep inside her, because what if the medical droids are wrong, what if he never wakes up -- but she does her best to ignore it. “K-2…”

“I know.” Chirrut sighs.

“And how are you feeling?” Jyn asks, and he smiles serenely.

“I’ll be fine,” Chirrut says. “The Force protected me.”

"You almost  _ died _ ,” Baze grumbles.  Not asleep, then. She probably should have known.

“But I didn’t,” Chirrut reminds him, and Baze huffs. “Although, the droids did give me some bad news,” he continues, and Jyn frowns, worried. “Apparently, I’ve gone blind.”

Jyn laughs for the first time in days, and she can’t seem to stop. This time, the droids really do kick her out.

  
  


-+-

  
  


She sneaks back into the infirmary that night, and sits by Cassian’s bed while all the lights are low. The world is quiet, except for his gentle breathing and the steady background hum of machinery. She doesn’t think it will ever be as silent as those few minutes after the world ended, when it was just the two of them and the burning sky. She doesn’t ever want to feel that way again.

Hours later, just before daybreak, Cassian finally opens his eyes. Jyn had been dozing, but she’s wide awake all at once, reaching for his hand and leaning in closer.

“Hey,” she whispers, as he blinks and focuses on her. “How do you feel?”

“We’re alive?” he asks, his voice raspy and almost suspicious, and she can’t say she blames him. Sometimes she thinks she died back there, and that this has all been a dream. If it is, she hopes she never wakes up.

“We’re alive,” Jyn tell him, and he smiles. But then, she falters, unsure what else to say. The two of them said already said their goodbyes, kneeling by the water. Neither of them thought there’d be anything more, and they’re not quite sure what to do, now that there is.

Soon, there will be briefings and strategy and secret plans and covert missions. After that, a kid from Tatooine will exploit the weakness her father built into the Empire’s greatest weapon and destroy the Death Star. Even then, there will still be more to do.

For now, though, they’re alive, which is more than Jyn could have asked for, and they have hope, and they have time to figure the rest of it out.

  
  


-+-

**bonus!!!**

-+-

  
  


_ Backup files _ , Cassian had said. She’d thought he meant the plans for the Death Star, until she’d flipped the disk over and read the neatly printed label.  _ K-2SO _ .

“Technically speaking,” K-2 says the second they boot him up in his new unit. “We should all be dead.”

“It’s good to see you, too,” Jyn says, rolling her eyes.

“I’m serious,” K-2 continues, completely ignoring her. “Do you want to know the probability that we could have actually all survived that mission?”

“No, I don’t,” Cassian assures him.

“Zero percent.” K-2 says. “There was a zero percent chance. This is ridiculous.”

Cassian laughs, and he takes Jyn’s hand, and he doesn’t let go.

  
  


-+-

_ end _

-+-

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Is that how droids work? Probably no. Do I care? Also, no.
> 
> And, also, hi, sorry about Bodhi's legs. Just kinda happened. At least he's still less dead? Yay?
> 
> ONE MORE THING, and this is maybe actually important. This is actually a second, alternate version of the story. When I first wrote it, it was in second person POV (which I prefer, but I know it puts a lot of people of) and also I didn't capitilize, uhm, anything. If you want to read that version, it'll go up on my tumblr maybe tomorrow? orange-yarn.tumblr.com come say hi!


End file.
